Westward Expansion (1807-1912)

Western Economy: Boom and Panic

Indian Removal, page 2

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Summary

The Louisiana Purchase and the Treaty of
Ghent, which ended the War of
1812, effectively removed all foreign infringement
on American territory in North America. This had the ancillary result of
removing all the protection that the region's Native Americans had received from
foreign powers, most notably Britain. Free to expand, American foreign policy
throughout the nineteenth century worked to the disadvantage of the Indians.

The Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles--whom whites
referred to as the "Five Civilized Tribes"--occupied sizable tracts of land in
Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Portions of these tribes
had accepted the teachings of white missionaries and accepted Christianity,
white inventions, and even the concept of slavery. The Cherokee chief Sequoyah
devised a written form of the Cherokee language and the tribe published a
newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. While a significant number of Indians
ceded their lands to the US government, many resisted removal. Many of the
"civilized" Indians resisted knowing that they depended on interactions with
whites for survival. Others, who had clung to their ancient customs, were
reluctant to abandon their ancestral lands. Many of the latter were full-
blooded Indians, as opposed to the many mixed bloods produced from years of
intermixing with whites. Full bloods were often resentful of mixed bloods, who
were more likely to give in to the wishes of the US government.

When Andrew Jackson became president in 1829, he quickly instituted a
coercive removal policy. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act granted Jackson
funds and authority to remove the Indians by force if necessary. The Georgia
legislature passed a resolution stating that after 1830, Indians could not be
parties to or witnesses in court cases involving whites. Treaties signed in
1830 and 1832 had begun the removal of the Chickasaws from Alabama and the
Choctaws from Alabama. In 1836, the Georgia militia attacked Creeks residing in
the state. In that year, 15,000 Creeks were removed and forced west of the
Mississippi. Between 1835 and 1840, the federal government spent 420 million on
a war to eject the Seminoles from Florida.

The Cherokees attempted legal resistance to removal. In 1827, they declared
themselves an independent nation within Georgia, only to have the Georgia
legislature pass laws giving it jurisdiction over the nation. The Supreme Court
ruled that the Cherokees were neither a state nor a nation. However, in
Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John
Marshall ruled that the Cherokees were a
"domestic dependent nation" and were thereby entitled to protection. This
decision carried only minimal weight. Andrew Jackson reportedly responded to
the decision saying "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce
it." The Cherokee nation itself was divided between factions favoring and
opposing removal. In 1835, federal agents persuaded a pro-removal chief to sign
the Treaty of New Echota, which ceded all Cherokee land for $5.6 million and
free transportation west. Most Cherokees rejected the treaty, but resistance
was futile. Between 1835 and 1838 bands of Cherokee Indians moved west of the
Mississippi along the so-called Trail of Tears. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of
the 16,000 migrating Cherokees died.

The Northwestern Indians put up mild resistance to removal but met with a
similar fate. Most notable among the resistance was that of chief Black Hawk,
who mounted significant resistance in both 1831 and 1832 in Illinois. In the
end, federal troops crushed this rebellion and others, and between 1832 and
1837, the US acquired nearly 190 million acres of northwestern land in return
for about $70 million in gifts.

Commentary

The burst in enthusiasm for Indian removal under Jackson was just another step
in the ongoing oppression to which American Indians were subject from the
beginning of white occupation of North America. During the period following the
Revolutionary War, the federal and state
governments of the United States had taken steps to remove Indians from the
borders of western states. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
Indian population at large had dwindled, and the only Indians remaining inside
the borders of the United States lived in tight communities, very much separated
from white society, despite the efforts of some to integrate them into white
American life. The Indians experienced fairly constant antagonism at the hands
of white settlers, but it was not until after the War of 1812 that the federal
government took a fierce stance on removal. The Louisiana Purchase and moderate
success in the War of 1812 had removed the British, who had been the Indians'
primary advocates, from the American West, and sparked a new American
nationalism, which centered on the desire to expand. The Indians were seen as
an obstacle to this aggressive nationalism. The Government took steps to force
the Indians from their homelands throughout the nation's territory into a small,
concentrated area of Indian reservations in what is now Oklahoma and southern
Kansas.